Crime and political instability dominate Peru's presidential race as right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori and left-wing rival Roberto Sánchez campaign on starkly different promises.
With nearly 30,000 extortion incidents reported in 2025, voters face tough choices between Fujimori's tough-on-crime approach and Sánchez's socialist agenda. The country's regular presidential impeachments and political instability, coupled with rising homicides and extortion incidents, have created a climate of frustration among voters, particularly the younger generation who feel neither candidate can deliver real change.
Fujimori, daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, has defined her campaign with tough-on-crime policies, promising to deploy the military against organized crime, control prisons, and work with financial institutions to block extorted money. She's invoked the memory of her father, whose hardline approach resulted in him being jailed for human rights abuses, but whose supporters remember him for bringing order to the country and stabilizing the economy.
Sánchez, on the other hand, promises sweeping changes to the state and higher public spending. He argues Peru's wealth originating from its natural resources doesn't reach ordinary people or the often rural communities where a lot of mining takes place. His supporters disagree that his policies will bring economic instability, with one saying, We are going to nationalise, but we are also going to accept foreign countries that want to contribute to our country.
Bus driver Toño's case exemplifies the extortion problem plaguing Peru. Shot in the legs and abdomen by a criminal gang demanding about $15,000, he was out of work for four months and still works with fear, despite his wounds being healed. If I had money, I'd leave the country, he says.
No party has a majority in Peru's Congress, which has led to regular presidential impeachments, though Fujimori's party has the largest minority bloc. Many Peruvians are fatigued by this instability. Last year, Gen Z protests erupted, with young people arguing the state was failing to tackle crime, corruption and inequality.
Under-30s make up about a quarter of Peru's electorate, and many who protested feel neither candidate can deliver real change. Consuelo, 21, vice-president of the student federation of Peru's Pontifical Catholic University, cites political exhaustion with the political class. She feels deciding between the final two options in Sunday's vote is like choosing the lesser evil.
However, she is concerned about Fujimori's pledge to replicate some of her father's policies. To talk about Fujimorism is to talk about authoritarianism, and that is something that for many students represents an enormous fear.
Fujimori spent years under investigation over campaign financing allegations too, which were dropped last year. But she spent nearly a year-and-a-half in jail in pre-trial detention from 2018-20. Sánchez has also faced legal challenges, with a judge saying he could stand trial over alleged undeclared campaign finances from regional elections from 2018-2020. He denies the accusations and is expected to appeal.
With no majority party in Congress and two candidates at very different ends of the political spectrum, many analysts think this is still a long way off. José Luis Pérez Guadalupe, interior minister from 2015-16 and professor at the Pacific University, says great polarisation means whoever wins, it's going to be difficult for them to implement their plans.
We've had eight presidents in 10 years, 24 justice ministers, 32 interior ministers. That's high volatility.
It's no surprise then that many Peruvians share Consuelo's frustrated verdict: Whether Fujimori wins, or Sánchez wins, we know there will most likely be a lot of instability. In reality, it's a pretty hopeless choice.
